Sunday, January 20. 2008

Rising prices for cooking oil are forcing residents of Asia’s largest slum, in Mumbai, India, to ration every drop. Bakeries in the United States are fretting over higher shortening costs. And here in Malaysia, brand-new factories built to convert vegetable oil into diesel sit idle, their owners unable to afford the raw material.

This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food.

The food price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, based on export prices for 60 internationally traded foodstuffs, climbed 37 percent last year. That was on top of a 14 percent increase in 2006, and the trend has accelerated this winter.

More information on the food versus fuel front. Which is more important to grow, food to feed people or food to feed your SUV? This article more focuses on palm oil but the palm oil shortage comes back to the ethanol boom in the US. Such global ramifications.

To become a thoroughly good man is the best prescription for keeping a sound mind and a sound body. Francis Bowen